X305 Crystaline Ammunition
"Humanity has always been innovative, rather than imitative. Turns out, that works for stuff we steal from the xenos too. If you thought blamite was nasty already, you haven't seen anything yet." -"DJ" Condut, MarasCorp Research and Development during the reveal speech for the X305 The X305 Crystalline Ammunition Round (usually shortened to X305 CAR but colloquially known as "human blamite", "blamite ammo", or inevitably "blamo") is a post-war human/Covenant hybrid ammunition designed and refined by Pacifica's MarasCorp Research and Development and produced by Glorious Victory Armories. As the name suggests, it is designed around an artificially reproduced variation of the naturally occurring "blamite" material found on Sangheili's moon of Suban. History MarasCorp was able to acquire several functional needlers and a decent amount of ammunition following the abortive and chaotic Battle of Pacifica in 2548, and tasked their R&D division with producing a human-sourced equivalent to the crystal ammo of the weapon with the intention of giving it to the UNSC. Setbacks during the research process delayed its intended roll-out by years however, as did the turmoil following the end of the War and the resulting cleanup and restructuring, and the first viable field prototypes were not properly ready until well into 2555. Even then, production delays resulted in almost entirely local use by the Pacifican Militia and Pacifica Guard units, and a withdraw from active service less than two years later in 2557 following less than stellar field use. While it never saw UNSC active use, the round was used by Pacifican forces against various non-legal groups and Covenant splinter-factions, as well as Insurrectionist forces. Design A combination of human ballistic propulsion and Covenant crystal ammunition, the X305 resembles little more than a 9.5mm round with a clear "soft" tip, loaded with six sequentially separated shards of artificial blamite. The original design involved a chrystal needle in almost identical to those used by the Needler itself, but this proved unfeasable and a less ambitious but far more reliable human-based mechanism was chosen instead. Upon firing, the softer material of the nose cone is ablated by friction with the air, slowly peeling away to expose the crystals. A sensor installed in the middle of the crystal grouping detects the presence of a target through a multi-spectrum array housed in a small window at its peak, or can be fed data through Smart Link from the firing weapon or even the user's neural interface or armor, and detonates a small charge when the round is in proximity. Once detonated, the shards erupt outwards with hypersonic force, easily punching through soft flesh and even most hardened armors. It is at the point of impact where the weapon diverges the most from its Covenant origin. Unlike natural blamite, which reacts explosively with biological material to produce the infamous flesh-shredding "supercombine", blamo instead creates a catalytic reaction with the impacted flesh, essentially mineralizing it into a more stable form of itself. Called "rock candy" for its sugar-like apperance, this material is not artificial blamite, but crystalized flesh. The way this reaction occurs is heavily guarded by MarasCorps R&D, but its presumed to be similar to calcification. Needless to say the sudden replacment of up to a half pound of muscle, bone, and organ with a crystal-like substance has catastrophic effects on any hit target, ranging from simple incapacitation to instant death as organs cease to function. While not the explosive result Pacifica hoped for, the psychological effect of seeing it be used was deemed "adaquite" for their particular needs.